Ever come across one of those ideas that is so brilliant and crazy – it makes you wonder why no one has done it before? Artist and interactive designer, JooYoun Paek takes the cake on that front with her recently revealed Self-Sustainable Chair, a wearable piece of furniture which is a dress where the butt inflates into a chair through pumps in the shoes. Paek hopes the provocative art piece will “transform the humdrum experiences produced by routine walking commutes into an amusing interactive performance.” Featured at this weekend’s Conflux Festival, her quirky and intriguing project suggests that rest and walk can be balanced by re-thinking the function of what we wear.
Paek’s “chair” more closely resembles a wearable outfit than a piece of furniture and is is composed from a pair of shoes, pumps, and polyethylene. The polyethylene is used to create a dress and a bubble that are later welded together so that the bubble is situated on the back side of the dress. As the wearer walks, foot pumps push air through the tubes, blowing up the bubble and creating a chair suitable for sitting. The experience looks quite amazing – watch the video to fully get a sense of how it works.
During the Conflux Festival, Paek hosted a workshop at Eyebeam designed to help curious individuals (including yours truly and a couple of friends) construct a self-sustaining chair. Paek guided us in replicating her project, from explaining the materials to troubleshooting when we hit a snag. The entire process took a little over three hours, and began with gluing the shoes to the pumps and concluded with ironing the bubble onto the dress. In the end, my team’s Self-Sustainable Chair was only semi-successful – while our bubble inflated, a small puncture in the plastic caused the chair to collapse.
The workshop generated many interesting observations and reflections upon the possibilities of using the kinetic energy generated by walking to fulfill a useful function. Some suggested constructing the chair out of recycled military parachutes or other recycled plastic materials in order to strengthen its durability and bolster its green cred.
Both fun and fulfilling, JooYoun Paek’s workshop certainly inspired dialogue about creative acts of experimentation aimed to change our daily lives. It also established the Self-Sustainable Chair as a functional, if quirky solution to every pedestrian’s dilemma: finding a place to rest.
It’s remix-the-city-time: the Conflux Festival is back. This annual NYC-based festival of psychogeography promises some great urban tinkering, featuring the work of several artists we’ve
French designer Philip Starck is exhibiting his elegant recycled Broom Chair at this year’s bustling ICFF. Made from 90% recycled industrial waste, the Broom Chair made
6 Responses to “Self-Sustainable Chair: Dress inflates into a chair for your butt”
is interesting and all, but the deflates so fast, it seems like u cant even sit on it for more than 10secs, she needs to do something about that. And the walking is just uncomfortable. But it is a piece that really makes us think
“… it makes you wonder why no one has done it before?”
Maybe not everyone dreams of walking around like their wearing a diaper that’s just been removed from an incontinent elephant!
That’s my guess.
Sorry, but I really get annoyed when garbage like this is given space on ‘green’ websites. What use could it ever possibly be? When you consider the time, effort, and money that has gone into the design and execution of things like this, you have to question where our pririties truly lie: saving the planet or having a laugh?
This is such a waste and should not be given serious attention on a prestigious green website.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog
and suspense thriller ‘What if…?’
This is funny as art, but of course in a practical sense, utterly useless. So what is the intention? I’m giving the benefit of the doubt and saying art. But then, why is it on an eco-website? Moment of levity? Big bamboozle? Notion that a giant inflatable bag hanging off your ass is going to save the world?
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is interesting and all, but the deflates so fast, it seems like u cant even sit on it for more than 10secs, she needs to do something about that. And the walking is just uncomfortable. But it is a piece that really makes us think
i love bizarre ideas, and this takes the cake- more art should be like this…
…..
…..haha couldn’t resist
‘does my bum look big in this?’
“… it makes you wonder why no one has done it before?”
Maybe not everyone dreams of walking around like their wearing a diaper that’s just been removed from an incontinent elephant!
That’s my guess.
Sorry, but I really get annoyed when garbage like this is given space on ‘green’ websites. What use could it ever possibly be? When you consider the time, effort, and money that has gone into the design and execution of things like this, you have to question where our pririties truly lie: saving the planet or having a laugh?
This is such a waste and should not be given serious attention on a prestigious green website.
Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog
and suspense thriller ‘What if…?’
This is funny as art, but of course in a practical sense, utterly useless. So what is the intention? I’m giving the benefit of the doubt and saying art. But then, why is it on an eco-website? Moment of levity? Big bamboozle? Notion that a giant inflatable bag hanging off your ass is going to save the world?